Episode 449 SUMMER SERIES The Daughters of Zelophehad (Numbers 27:1-11 and 36:1-12)

This week BibleWorm continues our special summer series on the Women of the Hebrew Bible with the story of the daughters of Zelophehad as told in Numbers 27:1-11 and 36:1-12. We marvel at these five young women who stand before Moses and the whole people of Israel to advocate for their right to inherit property after their father died without any sons. When Moses takes their claim to God, God responds simply by saying, “The daughters of Zelophehad are right” and then modifying the Torah for all time so that women can inherit property if they have no brothers. We talk about the courage of these women to work within the system to advocate for themselves and for all women within the patriarchal society of ancient Israel. We discuss God’s unquestioning acceptance of their perspective and full acknowledgment of their interpretation of the Torah, even as they point out that God had overlooked some issues in the original giving of the Law. We also recognize that this text does not go as far as we might wish, as the system of inheritance in ancient Israel remains fully patriarchal, with this one minor modification in favor of women. But then, change is slow and never happens as quickly as we might like. In that sense, the daughters of Zelophehad give us encouragement to continue in the struggle for women’s equality even still today.